meetings start at 11, cindy. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? i need your timesheets, larry! it's tuesday december 10th and this is "now." early this morning in johannesburg under a cold, hard rain, tens of thousands of people, and at least 91 world leaders gathered to pay tribute to former south african president nelson mandela. among those in attendance, president barack obama who offered a eulogy for the south african leader honoring the life he lived and the place he earned in history. >> it's tempting, i think, to

remember nelson mandela as an icon, smiling -- [ inaudible ] but madiba himself strongly resist resisted. [ applause ] >> instead, madiba insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears, his miscalculations along with his victories. i am not a saint, he said, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying. precisely because he would admit the imperfection, because he grew to be so full of good humor, even mischief despite the

heavy burdens he carries that we love him so. he was not a bust made of marble, he was a man of flesh and blood, a son and a husband, a father and a friend. that's why we learned so much from him. that's why we can learn from him still. nothing he achieved was inevitable. in the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness and persistence and faith. >> the president's speech struck familiar chords of reflection and tribute, it was also deeply person. as the first u.s. president of african descent reflecting on the life of the first south african black president, obama made mention of his own legacy and how mandela influenced it. >> we know like south africa, the united states had to overcome centuries of racial

subjugation. as was true here, it took sacrifice, sacrifice of thousands of people known and unknown to see the dawn of a new day. michelle and i are beneficiaries of that struggle over 30 years ago while still a student, i learned of nelson mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me. it woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey to find me here today. and while i will always fall short of madiba's example, he makes me want to be a better man. he speaks to what's best inside us. >> for the next three days, nelson mandela's body will lie in state in the capital city of

pretoria. on sunday his body will be buried in the village in which he was born 95 years ago today -- or 95 years ago. joining me richard wolfe, founder and president for social inclusion mia wiley and author and radio host of studio 360 curt anderson. richard, i want to go to you first because you have a pitch on the decided glitch-free nbc.com. it's a great assessment of what is an important speech. lets read an excerpt from it in which you write. of all speeches obama's eulogy for mandela was a remarkable milestone in his presidency. the lessons of mandela as described by obama are the mixture of hope and power that represent his own political philosophy, a combination of what he calls struggle and shrewdness and persistence and faith. >> he's given a lot of big speeches, so it's very easy to

dismiss them as another big speech. yes, the history of this is everywhere. it's mandela, the first black american president, first black president of south africa. but the personal piece of it, more than saying i was inspired as a young man is really important and really rare in any sitting president. those moments when he said what inspired me about mandela was when he could admit his mistakes, talk about his doubts and miscalculations. that mixture of we need to reach for ideals but laws -- principles chiseled into law. he talked about the need to accommodate your opponents, enemies, as mandela has done and saying it's okay to make compromises. yet at the same time stick to core principles like dealing with racial inequality and economic inequality. those are the sort of fundamental pillars of this presidency and at least how he views his own presidency.

whether he lives up to that, whether he fails to reach for that is another question. he's given us this road map in these big speeps and they are very few and far between. >> i feel like the white house has been playing for a long time a lot of defense. in the last week the income inequality speech, question of fairness, fair deal for american worker, what kind of country we want to be. the scenes of his presidency we first heard at the democratic national convention echoed some eight, nine years later at the passing of nelson mandela. i think it is a really important reminder, not just for the global community but for americans here about why he's president and why he was elected president. >> and although there are probably all kinds of motives for people like ted cruz and newt gingrich stepping up to celebrate mandela and his legacy and attending the memorial service, it is at least for a second, for a moment good for

americans to see that these people at the extremes of our political spectrum can come together around this. i have to say, i was interested thinking about mandela and obama yesterday, i went back to obama's books to see, oh, he must have talked about the mandela example in the book. not so much. there was one mention of mandela in each book. i was sort of surprised at that given as he has said that he was a figure of -- a model to him as a young man when he learned of his struggle. >> i wonder how much because mandela was the first black president of south africa and president obama is the first black president of america, the drawing of parallel lines is somewhat inevitable. the president remarked on in the speech, he will never be the man madiba was nor does he propose that he is. i think he's been hesitant to step into the line of inheritance, if you will, maya, established. >> the context is totally different.

we have to understand that. nelson mandela after being arrested in 1962, spending 26 years in prison, spending five years negotiating peace before he was released. obama elected in a highly democratic nation, even with its racial divides. there's just no comparison. it actually doesn't surprise me, though, that we didn't hear as much about mandela in obama's books, because the truth is, you know, the president in becoming the first black president had to spend a lot of time convincing white americans he would be the president of all americans. >> race does not tread into very frequently and in some cases does not. >> unfortunately that's part of the politics of the united states, to become the first black president, he felt the need to spend a lot of time talking about his kansas roots,

not his kenyan roots. >> another theme of the last few days has been the relationship mandela had to his opponents, one of grace and forgiveness and shrewd negotiation as well. hearing the president talk about what richard brought up, you can't understand your supporters but you also need to understand your opponent. seems like as much a reminder for democrats as it was a sort of signal to republicans that this is about both teams here. >> for mandela, it wasn't just his white opponents but black political opponents in south africa who wanted a more extreme change. it's amazing the needle he managed to thread getting these groups together and putting together a stable government with rule of law and free press and well functioning economy compared to the rest of africa. obviously sack still has big challenges with crime and hiv and continuing very high income inequali inequality. the legacy he achieved despite

repression are really an inspiration people trying to bridge all sorts of gaps. it's an amazing contrast to the dysfunction in washington over drastically smaller differences. it seems like republicans and democrats have, you know, huge policy deals between them but they have basically similar views about what sort of governance the united states should have, tinkering around the margins how much it should tax and spend. so much lesser ability here than mandela and his opponents achieve. a narcissism, such a crisis in south africa it was necessary to come together and give big things up. in the united states they think they can get everything because the gap between what they want and their opponents want is so small. >> we're made to feel they are much larger. the white house, organizing thesis of this administration, i feel like obama is at his best

when he's speaking about moral arc of the history, the sort of big historic theme of the moment. he's much bigger -- he has hindsight almost as events unfold. i think he's been incredibly shortchanged by media landscapes and the way information is dispersed, completely without analysis and the way politics are conducted these days, which is very reactionary. i think obama has a much better sense of his presidency and how history will treat it than anybody else does. >> he does like to have the after body experience on his own life,ous floating above. that can be helpful, strategic, deeply frustrating for people who want that human touch. he talked about humor and mischief and made you yearn for that are sense of humor and mischief the man delivering those words. there was a human touch to

mandela. i hear what you say about the moment of crisis mandela faced as he was negotiating his release but it was far more likely that there was no mandela, they would descend into horrible, horrible racial violence. mandela being a george washington type figure we take for granted because we have lived through that. for obama to live up to those ideals as he's urging us to do, he needs to look at himself and say where do i fall short, not just reaching ideals but being the human being mandela clearly was. >> lets be clear. that speech was not all historic platitudes. he was also very sharp. in one particular passage, he said their too many of us who happily embrace madibaed legacy of racial ragulation but chronic reforms poverty and growing inequality. too many leaders claim it was

madiba's struggle for freedom but not their own people. too many of us standing on the sidelines comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard. i think, may ark, for activists, the president has great faith in the next generation and young people. so much of what he said has focused on young acvices and young leaders. to get people to engage regardless of their age, i think there has to be an anger about the status quo, a sense that what is happening is not right. very much in display on that passage in particular. >> he's right. i think there is a lot of anger on display. i think cross-generations. i think younger people are more likely to be active. nothing new about that. primary activists in this country happening on college campuses. a long history of that, no so new. what's striking to me about that part of speech is how much of the inequalities we're talking about are racial divides and racial wedges both in south africa and in the united states. what's happened in south africa

is somewhat similar in that both men were accused of being socialists, which i think is highly -- trying to address the inequality. one thing interesting in the south african contest, true socialism in south africa was socialism for white people. that's essentially what apartheid was. in fact, they nationalized businesses that were predominantly white employeed. that's true communist. there's your communism. i think what's really important here is that we see opponents to some of the programs we need to help lift people out of poverty actually using coded racial terms, images, language in order to keep americans divided on programs we all need. >> on the legacy of nelson mandela, you hinted at this earlier, one thing you would think most people could agree

upon, there has been shouting and blogging and nasty commentary from the far right. the salon is calling it the right new litmus test, do you hate mandela enough. i'm not sure it's a litmus test. the notion that newt gingrich would have to defend his praise for a historic figure like nelson mandela is a testament to those divisions actually calcifying, i think. >> to some degree it's a testament to the saintly figure that mandela has been for the last 20 years. less not forget for a very good reason he never foreswore violence. in the end he led an astonishingly peaceful transition but he was not a gandhi figure. >> at the same time i don't think while he was not a waring terrorist, as some would draw him, he was a shrewd negotiator, a brilliant tactician, and fundamentally a generous soul. i think it's hard for us in the

global imagination to reconcile those different characteristics. >> guerrilla ark warfare a war of independence or a terror fight. >> he gets into that, a testament 25 years ago mandela was a controversial figure in the united states. newt gingrich was fighting over ronald reagan what the policy in the united states ought to be towards mandela. now it's clear the pro mandela have won in the fight. you have web bloggers complaining. >> shut them down. no. freedom of speech. weather sweeps the country, jim cantore will tell us where it's heading next on "now." [ male announcer ] it's 7am and steve is already thinking about tomorrow. which is why he's investing in his heart health by eating kellogg's raisin bran®. mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. [ male announcer ] invest in your heart health with kellogg's raisin bran®.

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a second dose of snow is bringing washington, d.c. and much of the northeast to a grinding halt. as if d.c. wasn't already in a grinding halt. much of the federal government shut down for storms and schools closed across mid-atlantic states. needless to say a headache by road and air. joining me by air meteorologist jim cantore. how bad is it hitting you there in charm city? >> first of all, it's been a headache for forecasters as well. remember sunday all those football games in baltimore, philly, pittsburgh and d.c. with all the snow coming down, the intensity coming down, we didn't have that in the big city. that's why you see bare ground here. we never got into a period where it came down. streets are bare, pratt street, inner harbor.

sounds like you know the charm city pretty well. pratt street. traffic moved along, where the southbound commute would be rolling in. really we didn't have any problems at all. this pile of snow is actually from sunday's event. so this was not from today's event. however, this said, 20, 40, 50 miles to the northwest it came down. here are some of the snowfall togethers for you. redding, pennsylvania, rock 2.5, dam st. louis 4, hagerstown had 4. we had a half inch to an inch if you michigan it. a lot melted. the storm ended, drizzling now, 34 in baltimore and fair, much, much nicer. now, sale thing in d.c., north and west hit hardest. philly actually got a couple inches of snow in the downtown area. wet roads in new york city. boston getting into this event. again, north and west of i-95, that's where the biggest impacts were unlike what we had on sunday when they were much bigger than that. everybody in the northeast much,

much colder starting tonight. piles like this will become solid ice if not moved. worse north of the city. we'll keep our eyes on another storm. right now looks to be primarily a rain event for the big cities in the northeast. maybe boston will be an exception. we'll have to wait and see saturday and sunday. >> jim cantore, thank you for that thorough walkthrough of what's happening. my sympathy, jim, live with the football players. that's all i'm saying. thank you, jim. coming up, while there are signs of compromise in the ongoing farm bill negotiation, it appears little is done to prevent massive cuts to food stamps. a new report reveals which members of congress are actually doing something for those most in need. we would talk to chef advocate and food policy action board member tom colicchio about this year's report card. that's next on "now." you ready ? just a second, sweetie.

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with time running out to reach agreement on a farm bill some last minute horse trading may have put a deal within reach. one of the four lead negotiator on the committee democrat collin peterson said one of the main sticking points the size of the cuts to the s.n.a.p. program, also known as food stamps, has been agreed to. entitled, how democrats plan to cut food stamps without enraging their base, $8 million over 10 years. the savings achieved targeting a loophole in low in come home energy assistance program. still even $8 billion in cuts may not satisfy house republicans who earlier this year balked at $20 billion in cuts before finally settling on $40 billion. appears in front of an agriculture group in kentucky over the weekend, republican

senate leader mitch mcconnell complained the farm bill has become a food stamp bill. actually since 1973. saying we need to move in the direction of having a vibrant, productive expanding economy and you don't do that by making it excessively easy to be nonproductive. indeed, does anyone know about the ease of being nonproductive? it is republicans in congress. the question now is will anyone check lawmakers in their zeal to repeal the social safety net at a time of historic poverty. in an effort to draw attention to lawmaker's records, today the nonpartisan group food policy action is releasing its national food policy scorecard giving members of congress a percentage grade based on legislative history on issues including hunger, nutrition, food labeling and farm subsidies. for the record senator mitch mcconnell got a zero. joining us now is chef, owner of kraft restaurants and board

member of food policy action the great tom colicchio. tom, thanks as always for joining us. >> sure, alex, how are you doing? >> better now that you're here to talk about one of my favorite and most important issues in america. my question is this. i think the scorecard is fabulous, used for effectiveness, efficacy on the right like nra. my question is do you think republicans actually care or people not good on hunger who happen to be in congress, do you think they actually care about what anybody else thinks? >> i think, alex, our goal toys make them care. if you create a coalition of people who care about food safety issues, who care about the way animals are raised, who care about the environmental effects of how we raise our food and care about hunger, if you create a coalition, enough people care about that, we'll make congress sort of focus on some of these issues. >> it's worth noting and scoring here, 87 lawmakers received a

100% score. of those 87 just one republican. 38 lawmakers received a zero score and they were all republicans. i know this is a nonpartisan initiative and i don't want to goad you into saying anything partisan but there seems to be a partisan divide on hunger. what have you found? the best entry point convincing conservatives or republicans that these issues should matter to them? >> i think when they understand that there's an economic component of programs like s.n.a.p. we found if you talk in terms of dollars being spent locally, for instance, programs that -- where s.n.a.p. dollars are spent on farmers markets, that money stays in local economies. we're starting to get traction there. people understand when they understand health outcomes of people living on a poor diet,

educational outcomes, i think they start to take notice. >> tom, i'm going to open up to my friends in new york. we talked about income inequality in the last block. here is an example of structural, systemic failures that throwed historic highs in terms of poverty. we are talking about cuts to food stamps. i wonder from your standpoint whether you think democrats and progressives have paid enough attention to this issue, which is hunger in america, and whether democrats have ceded too much ground to the right. at this moment being where we are on poverty, we're talking about cuts to food stamps instead of at the very least maintaining funding we have. >> this is an interesting question when we've just extolled the virtue of obama's ability to negotiate. what that represents and we talk about mandela. listen, we obviously made jokes all morning about the gridlock

in washington. i think what's happening is lawmakers who want to get something done are making deals to get something done. there's no question this is on the backs of the least of us. so this -- lets just take the workers who work in restaurants, tip wages, something tom knows a lot about. 1980, $0.70 for bread and you earned about $2.13 as tipped wage if you worked in a restaurant. today bread is like $3 and you earn $2.13 tipped wage. so what we've seen is actually food costs have gone up, wages have been stagnant." so a lot of people we're talking about are workers. the whole dialogue is like somehow we're encouraging people not to work when they are working and not eating through the end of the month is ridiculous. another thing we have to talk about is race. a lot of people on food stamps is white.

the narrative about who is a maker and who is a taker is highly racialized. we see immigrants latino, we see people who are black. we're actually told while so many of us are struggling to eat and work and work and eat that we actually should cut these programs because they are about those people over there. >> that debate, which i think was crystallizing in and around the romney candidacy and 47% comments, josh, as much as that has been walked back and a terrible moment, that belief of the takers versus makers is still alive and well in terms of the organizing principle in the republican economic policies. >> i think, you know, deep down conservatives think this is a key driver of our slow economy, too many americans have decided they are better off not working and sitting back and collecting benefits. i think that's a misdiagnosis. where there could be a good agenda for conservatives. there is a phenomenon when you add programs together, if you're on food stamps and medicaid and

unemployment insurance and a number of other things. you can get back to work your effective tax rate is so high as those benefits fade out or go away it's a disincentive and a trap to climb out of poverty. you need to work how to make the programs work better so it's more of a slope getting out. obama care, unemployed on medicaid, you go back to work you lose your health insurance. >> if you look at the statistics about federal assistance programs, people getting unemployment, long-term unemployed are three times more likely -- looking for work three times harder than average recipients of unemployment benefits because of provisions that make it difficult to be on federal assistance programs without looking for work or being a lazy welfare queen. >> you have people faced with the choice of being out of work, medicaid, low wage job without health insurance, it's a very challenging situation for people.

you need to come up with a way to structure these programs so they support people in need and continue to support them as they are low wage workers so they can climb out of poverty. >> as a farm bill, everybody knows, deals with it knows the farm bill is designed for takers, hundreds of billions of weight. the takers are not people on food stamps but giant agri businesses. one example, the sugar industry. one of the most unhealthy things we do gets a massive subsidy. not competitive global market. this farm bill distorts the market, puts it in the hand of wealthy poem. they are the big takers. >> the narrative. tom, on the question of the farm bill, i would love to know your thoughts on it. is $8 billion the best deal democrats could have gotten? i myself a little bit -- a lot bit outraged $5 billion in stimulus spending got no play and there was no fight put up

around trying to secure those funds. do you think this is a good deal? >> no, i don't think it's a good deal. that roll call piece you referenced. sort of the democratic talking points around this as well. no one is getting thrown off of s.n.a.p. or food stamps but people will lose about $120 a month because of the provision. >> low income energy assistance program." >> it is somewhat a disingenuous argument. i don't think it's the best deal you can get. there's some ways to test issues around work fair i want to call it or work for snap. instead of using sort of an incentive for work for a stick, why not as a carrot, so perhaps additional benefits are given if people are actually working or in a job training program. or perhaps if you're going to put people in job training

program make them job training programs, not a place you go and read a computer screen about low wage jobs. there's a lot of ways to make these programs work a lot better but we're not addressing it. there's an idea we need to cut, cut, cut and cut. unfortunately what we're doing, we're not creating the atmosphere for people to actually become more productive. i think that's the argument, the change, how do you make people more productive, give back to society. >> there's a narrative, a sense somehow people who aren't working need to be punished in some way because they have done something wrong. you're actually talking about a reconfiguring of how we deal with people on federal assistance, let us help them. they are not to be punished. we are going to help them move forward and move up in the american economy. tom, i have to ask you this, because, well, you're a new yorker and new jerseyite both. in terms of your scorecard, how

did governors christie and cuomo do. >> we're not grading governors. >> good political answer, tom. how do you grade them in terms of hunger and food issues. >> new jersey has done okay recently but not because of anything governor christie has done, mostly because advocates doing great work. new jersey still ranks 46th among kids who are eligible for free lunches and those are -- free breakfast and those are actually getting free breakfast. i think there's still 48 when you look at people eligible for food stamps and actually get food stamps. i think i had one-on-one with the governor about a month ago. he agreed with me these are issues. but i talked about issues of the economics around food stamps, leaving $1.3 billion on the table when lou at a difference between people receiving benefits and not. this is all federal money coming in. this money goes right to the economy of new jersey.

it goes to supermarkets, farmers mark, bodegas. he's league a lot of money on the table. education, study recently out kids would get breakfast in first period, not before school, first period, math scores go up 17ers -- 17%. we have to talk to opposite side and talk about things they perceive of being of value. this is really about our values in this country. each side of the aisle has their own ideas what those values are. i think we have to learn how to talk to both sides. >> right on, chef tom colicchio. thank you as always for your time and thoughts. >> thanks, alex. >> you can learn more about food policy congressional scorecard by visiting food policy action.org. if your kids missed ted cruz's 21 hour nonfilibuster filibuster, now there is a coloring book to tell them about it. buyer beware, when it comes to the facts, the book covers way, way, way outside the lines. we will show you some of the

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it is unfortunate obama and his administration have a consistent disregard. it seems they use any opportunity to go after second amendment right and other constitutional rights such as free speech. another page talks how cruz spoke with clairvoyant precision during his 21-hour epic speech, a common phrase in children's coloring books. include nonpartisan fact-driven nugget. this speech was so important because millions of citizen believe obama care is worse than any war. at least american soldiers have weapons with which to defend themselves, many including obama's own supporters, feel the president has betrayed millions of americans. this book is clearly nowhere in the universe of facts or a nonpartisan reality but in that way it just might be the perfect representation of senator ted cruz. more licensed wireless spectrum, we can empower more...

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this march in the state of texas, the civil war in the republican party, the one between tea partiers and establishment is about to see his own mini version of the alamo. representative stockman, best known for threatening the impeachment of obama jumped into the republican primary against two-term senator cornyn. senator cornyn ranked the number two most conservative senator in america has been taking heat from the tea party for his refusal to back senator ted cruz's 21 hour nonfilibuster filibuster. he told the website wnd, we are extremely disappointed in the way he treated his fellow congressman and broke the

amendment and undermined ted cruz's fight to stop obama care. never mind senator cornyn opposed the bill to reopen the government, voted against party squishs, voting with, you guessed it, ted cruz. curt, just when you thought republicans could not outrepublican themselves, this is happening. the question is we laugh off someone found with 30 milligrams of valium in his underwear, something that happened, he's being taken seriously by one wing of the republican party? >> he is. don't we believe not only because he doesn't have the money, isn't an incumbent, going to lose badly. seems to me that will be one more little nail in the coffin of the tea party as they overreach and attempt to primary. as you say cornyn before ted cruz got in the senate, second most conservative senator in the senate. >> amazing that argument, ted

wolf -- so weird. ted cruz somehow was undermined and failed, failure was built into his strategy to shut down the government over repealing obama care. obama care was the law of the land. it wasn't going anywhere. the notion somehow he didn't get the correct support from people like john cornyn is fairly outrageous. >> that's because you haven't read the right coloring books. i can suggest holiday reading for you. i wonder if the guy is training, the guy will become the face of midterm election, very hard to cover. this is a very real threat for cornyn. as preposterous as it is, it does say something fundamental and shocking about texas politics. there is an alternate universe where these things are normal and unfortunately this guy is fine with that. >> not just texas, josh. this is someone the senate conservative fund has not endorsed him but said we're glad

they are going. we do not expect to be involved in the texas senate race. that's not an endorsement but it's not an endorsement for john cornyn either. >> these groups don't get involved in races unless they are going to get involved in them. >> that's a profound statement. >> one reason, john cornyn is going to win this easily. there is definitely a very crazy element within the republican party but not crazy enough to nominate him for the senate. >> that's what's been said over and over again. >> often it's been right. most of these tea party challenges fail. some succeed. but people like ted cruz, a very smart man, able to marshall a lot behind him and running against a candidate who was not as attuned to the tea party as john cornyn is. john cornyn a week ago speculating the president brokering a nuclear deal with iran in order to distract from obama care. is he enough to be a senator

from texas. the answer is yes. >> i'm not a witch. >> exactly. sharon engel, todd aiken. bring it back to the war in the party. paul ryan and patty murray may come to a budget deal that will come to a vote this week that everybody says is really like a snooze snoozearama. they are going to take away republican support for this. whether enough to kill the bill is anybody's guess. >> what's fascinating. exists, creating all types of interesting things. i was in mississippi recently and there are a lot of black folks thinking about registering for the republican party so they

can support ted cochran. this is too scary. i'm just saying that is an amazing fact. >> i think the budget deal marks a real shift. i think it's done. i'm convinced we're going to get the budget deal, probably 21 months of relative calm. what's terrible for me political reporter. >> there will be plenty for you. >> i'm sure i'll find something to talk about. it signals a rejection within the republican party of the ted cruz approach where you try to shut everything down. but i think that's going to be a negative thing for steve stockman in this race. john cornyn was against the government shutdown strategy, against the ted cruz filibuster. i think increasingly conservatives are realizing that, among other problemsish was not a good way to achieve conservative goal. >> curt, you are a father. i really believe child psychology factors into dealing with the republican party here. i feel as if after what josh has

said, we have had an unruly child throwing food against the wall. because that child is throwing less food against the wall, somehow we're to applaud or reward that child when in reality it is unacceptable to throw food against the wall. >> that is the wing, tantrum wing, beyond ideology, the wing that doesn't want good behavior. good behavior in washington looks ideologicaly bankrupt. >> john cornyn, it will be an interesting year for you. thank you for my panel. that is all for now. see you at noon eastern. "andrea mitchell reports" is coming up next. [ female announcer ] make every smile

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," fairwell madiba. the falling rain could not damp be spirits of tens of thousands gathered at the soccer stadium to celebrate the life of nelson mandela. president obama and the first lady leading the u.s. delegation that included three former presidents and former secretary of state hillary clinton. all greeted with warm cheers. so was african dictator and eclectic group of world leaders, a mix of allies and adversaries. the magnitude was captured in this historic handshake between president obama and cuban's president fidel